RELAUNCH DU JOUR: MCM Plans A SoHo Flagship
August 27, 2014
You can be forgiven for not knowing that German status handbag brand MCM has had its only boutique in the Plaza Hotel for the past few years. Though highly touted when it opened, the underground retail complex at the hotel quickly turned into something of a shopping black hole, and has found more success since being converted into a food hall, but where does that leave the once ubiquitous MCM? This Fall the leathergoods company will be making bigger waves when it opens a full flagship store at 100 Greene Street (pictured above). Home to designer Jill Stuart until recently, the store will not only feature products with the brand's familiar Cognac Visetos logo pattern but also newer, more sophisticated logo-free merchandise designed to attract luxury customers who have moved beyond exterior status symbols. "Our classic pieces appeal to our loyal customers but our cleaner silhouettes draw the attention of a new shopper, MCM's international chief executive officer Paolo Fontanelli tells WWD, "These pieces have minimal overt MCM branding. For fall, there’s pebbled lambskin, cowhide napa leathers and exotic skins." This new store represents a renewed effort to re-establish the MCM brand in the U.S. Though it enjoyed widespread recognition in the 1980s, the brand has had a rocky road since then as logo festooned looks fell in and out of fashion and rampant counterfeiting eroded its business in the ensuing years. Owned by South Korean retailer Sung-Joo Group since 2005, the brand's SoHo store will be the first of several planned flagships for the brand which should put new stores in Miami, Texas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago in short order.
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